I have been playing with a media center with various Media Center Software and Operating Systems. I have finally settled on Media Center again. Unfortunately my machine is not a beast so I opted for the XP version MCE2005.

I started running Media Portal with great success until version 1.0. Follow this distribution my HTPC ground to a halt. I found it far too feature filled for the average user at the detriment of performance. I do however still find myself looking for some features which are found in this great piece of open-source software. This led me to MCE. I tried an install without success and after tinkering for a few weeks, I moved onto Ubuntu running MythTV which was unbelievably quick and gave great support for video. Not being a Linux geek I found it a challenge to install any peripherals especially my Hauppauge TV card.

Finally I took the plunge and made an attempt at installing MCE2005 again. After some trouble installing (the SP2 disc it asks for is actually the first install disc) I was on my way. One of the main reasons I opted for MCE is because of the support with XBOX. This was very appealing as I could now have media center functionality in multiple rooms of the house without adding any new hardware to my network. I then realized that the XBOX 360 was unable to stream video content in AVI or DIVX format. In fact Microsoft limited formats to: WMV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and a few other MS standards. You can view the full list here. Damn, I now found myself with a great media center with no ability to stream to my XBOX….deal breaker. I was wary to move onto TVersity so I began the research again.

Enter Transcode360. I was trawling the web trying to find a solution and I came across a single lonely forum post (unable to reference as I never bookmarked it. Apologies to the author) that referenced Transcode360. I downloaded it without much confidence in its ability to fix this problem. I got home installed the MCE addon and that was it! Right click in the MCE interface on XBOX got to “more..” , then “transcode” and within a second the video is streaming across the network. Flawless and integrated. You can view the developers website here. The download link unfortunately isn’t working but you can download it from softpedia.

Game Roundup:

A North London Derby always produces something a little extra from both teams, sometimes its aggression sometimes nerves and sometimes sheer brilliance.

First Half

Spurs seemed to be spurred on by the re-arrival of their new captain Robbie Keane and were chasing every 50-50 ball with a sense of purpose from early on in the game. In the first 20 minutes neither team seemed able to stamp their authority on the game and the heat maps showed a game spread wide and deep across the pitch.

Spurs started to gain some stride and the edge in possession as the half progressed Woodgate finding space in their air on a few occasions and Modric finding support in Keane and Palacios seemed to step his game up a level.

The pivotal moment of the second half came out of the frustration of Eboue who having been carded earlier on for talking back to the referee received his second yellow and marching orders after a retaliatory kick after a Modric foul.

Spurs tried to step the game up a gear but rather than slowing the pace and looking for holes they opted to continue the high paced push forward perhaps running on energy more than strategy and while they had a few opportunities Arsenal survived to regroup at half time.

Second Half

As expected Spurs were dominant in the second half in terms of possession and position, holding the ball comfortably in the midfield and up the flanks. However with Arsenal dug in in defence they struggled to find a way through and create meaningful chances. Modric had two of the closest attempts in the second half both of which come from a rare counter attack.

Arsenal in the guise of Van Persie were able to trouble the home side on occasion but the opportunities on both sides were rare in the second half. Spurs surprisingly found more space upfront in the first half against a full Arsenal Side than they were able to find in the second against 10 men.

All credit to the Arsenal defence and Alumnia for holding on for the draw. No doubt both teams left White Hart Lane a little disappointed Arsenal will have wanted 3 points to stay in the chase for Europe and Spurs fans will be bitterly disappointed to not have capitalized against Arsenal.

A draw but in somes ways both teams will have felt they lost.

About Heat Maps:

Heat Maps allow you to see at a glance where the action has been taking place. The field is colour coded according to where the each team has had possession. The scale begins at Blue and the most travelled areas are indicated by Red hotspots.In each half the action of each team is relevant to the other teams’ possession so that you get an overall view of the game in context.